Frame 37 - The Making of
 

OK, most of this info will appear on the web site, which I really can't divulge at this time as Dylan wishes to dole them out 5 each day. Mine should be released officially on Wednesday.

So the story is an age old one of how certain cultures don't like to have their pictures taken as they feel you are stealing their soul. This is a simple concept but actually goes very deep. We won't reflect on the whole idea here but let's say it's deeper than you might think at first. Google around on the idea and you'll even find refrences to old movies like "Sunset Strip".

I came up with the plot pretty quickly, unlike DVC2 - "Secrets" which I wondered and worried about for almost 2 full days. I had to develop a twist on the idea by using self-portraits rather than one persons camera stealing another persons soul. It is an interesting thought that the loss of the soul would then be unknowingly self-induced.

I used the second of 3 daughters in this one. I used the oldest daughter in "Secrets", DVC2. She was quite unsure of herself when we began talking about it but actually jumped right into it as soon as the lights came on. No script for her really, just the idea and several shots of each scene. She did a good job making it up as we went along. I coached her in the concept but she came up with any dialog.

The day of the park scene where she is shooting the self portraits, we didn't realize it but the Nikon we were using had a blown shutter. I had planned to use her actuial photographs from that session in the end shots of the video but that wasn't to be. So, luckily she had the next afternoon off so we headed back to the park with my small digital still camera.

I cropped the photos in Photoshop and printed them on plain paper. Shot the final scenes Thursday evening and had it mostly done Thursday around midnight. Spent Friday evening, after dinner out with the wife, adding color correction and some minor effects. The rest of the time was figuring out the best rendering path. I settled on QT with a 384K preset modified for 16:9 in Sorenson Squeeze 4.0.

Editing was done on the HP Pavilion Laptop. 3.4GHz 64bit Athlon, 768Mb RAM, 100GB HD. External Sony PVM-8022 monitor and the camera made up the bulk of the gear. Also used the Century .65 WA adapter for some shots and the Cinetactics MatteBlox for lens shade. Circular polorizer, Bogen 3211 sticks with 501 head and Varizoom VZRock made up about everything else.

The rest will be on the web site which I will announce Wednesday.

Sean McHenry
Bring on DVC4 !

Sean,

Just to let you know that I loved your film (somehow found it while looking around). I will post concrete details when it is officially released, but it is technically impecable, and very appealing to watch.

Hugo

Oh boy Sean!

Certainly looking forward to this one.

Glad you liked it. My acting sucks but when you choose to go it alone, you pays the price.

Yeah, I didn't really hide it or anything. I had to reuses some resources anyway.

Sean

By the way, as usual, to see the gear I normally use, you can see this web page:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/deepblue...al/Studio.html

To see a few production shots, you'll just have to wait until Wednesday. I have a few on the page for DVC3 and still have a link up to the DVC2 short there as well.

I am going to be building a server to host my video files soon. Then I can keep everything upfor as long as I want.

Sean

By the way, cameras with mystical soul stealing properties were a popular subject... :)

I figured they would be. I just didn't quite think there would be 27 entrys.

Man. And these guys are good, and getting better. I hope I am keeping up.

Sean

I know. There are sure to be a couple of sleeper hits!

That's nice, depress me even more why don't ya. Maybe give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it. (Billy Crystal - Princess Bride)

Sean

Dylan released my video for public consumption. The web site is here:
http://www.surgetechservices.com/smchenry/

Go, see, report my mistakes, errors and omissions please. Make me better.

Thanks,

Sean McHenry

EDIT -----------------------

By the way, I have noticed if you have installed QT 7, as I have on my work PC, the video seems to look much better if you 2x the size of the player. For some reason, in 100% or 1x size, everything looks pixelated on my PC at work.

FYI.

Sean

Two words... deep and spooky. "remove the light and we cease to exist, all of us" damn... not a good way to cheer you up... I will probably use that phrase a lot now... and that music created a very spooky mood. Very nice indeed. Well done!

Basic Chemistry sir. All photochemical reactions need, well, photons. Light. If the grass didn't grow, the cows would die. No milk, no meat, no leather. The chickens would go, and the hogs, and the wheat, and the apples and bugs and horses, and, eventually, us.

Here's another one to think on. If you could stop all motion, would time stop? All time measurements are a product of some motion. If all motion ceased, would there be time?

If the tree falls... You get the idea.

Glad you liked it. I hope the others do.

Sean

really great little bit o' music at the end. was that "ronny raygun?" i'm pretty impressed with the music, really set an appropriately spooky tone, in a very minimalist way.

i was a little confused as to the girl's motives for going out and shooting pictures of herself, by herself. did i miss something here? also, i'm not sure the voice of god omniscient narrator worked for a coupla minute film. seemed kinda didactic, although that kind of melted away in the last scene where you let sound and image carry the moment.

i can feel how you're working the david lynch-esque aesthetic. when he hits, he hits hard, and when he misses, the audience goes, "huh?? what whuzzat?"

pretty cool stuff here overall.

Yep, it's Ronnie Raygun. We have been chatting a bit and he let's me use his stuff from time to time. I sent him a link this weekend and he really liked it. I'm working on a DVD for him now.

In the beginning, when she is on the phone you hear her talking to someone about having to miss lunch as she has a self protrait assignment for school she has to finish.

That Ronnie piece makes the thing for me.

I'm no Lynch, I hope I'm a bit more understandable at this point.

Thanks,

Sean

Hey Sean,

One of the things that impressed me (besides that cool X-Files-looking shot of the front door opening) were the photos at the end. Then I read what you told us about the blown shutter and re-enactment. Wow! You did a really good job of that.

In reading about it, I'm wondering if your concept overshot the time you had to pull it off as effectively as you would have liked. It looks like it was pretty darn complicated. Or maybe I'm just that simple-minded...

I agree with what Hugo said. Technically speaking, it looked flawless to me.

Well done, as usual!!!

I had just enough time and actually, since I got a leap on the scripting, which I may post on the web site later, I felt the pace was good this time around. In DVC2 I was rushed. This one, hopefully doesn't look rushed or unfinished. I am still waiting to do a final VO for "Secrets" to get it finished out the way I wanted it to be.

This one is just about right. I'm not sure it's going to carry me into the top 10 or so this time around as everyone is doing so darned good in this challenge.

Glad you liked it. I wrote the musicians invloved. They think it's a great use of their music. That makes me feel better (perhaps) than winning. Realizing a dream is better than prizes, mostly.

Sean

Sean, just to add a couple of words:

Many movies took the suck-into-camera concept in DVC#3. In yours, however, you managed to get it refined to a whole new level, by introducing the mystic concept of humans as beings of [limited] light.

Once again, technically perfect, conceptually sublime.

Hugo

I think it comes from my liking of not being spoon fed every action. I read (most of) Mamets book on directing. He likes to say "It's in the cut" which I take as, the heart of the action doesn't have to be completly spelled out for the viewer. You can create more tension in the audience by letting them imagine and think for themselves.

I allowed the character to just disapear without special effects or smoke, etc. More interesting to have her just fade away between shots and let the audience wonder if that's what happened and imagine her condition, fear, pain, relief, etc as she was fading away. For me in that situation I always see the worst in my head.

Anyway, that is always my intent. I hope it actually worked better here than perhaps in "Secrets". That was really not quite finished to my liking. In fact, I am still thinking of how I want to do a final edit on that one.

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate them. Glad you enjoyed it.

Sean

First off, you have a great name and spell it correctly. I thought it was well done. You told the story well. Interesting choice to use dissolves instead of cuts. Don't feel bad about having to act in your own stuff. It happens to everybody. Definitely a great short overall.

Same on your name. Have you seen the weather guy on cable that calls himself "SEEN". Dolt. I hope you are pronouncing it like Sean Connery, now that I said that...

I was called SEEN by many grade school teachers. By High School, they had it figured out. Thank you Sean Connery.

There was a site, may still be up called IBOS. International Brotherhood of Seans.

Anyway, happy you liked it. Waiting for the Judging this weekend.

Sean (the other one)
EDIT -----------

And don't forget to hit the web page for the short at http://www.surgetechservices.com/smchenry/

Sean,

Just watched your flick. Beautiful pictures. I can tell that most of ya'll must D.P. for a living. But hey, you look way TOO young to have such a BABE for a daughter! Did you get started in seventh grade??? That's not uncommon down here in Georgia, but I thought you guys were more refined!

I like your use of the disolve. I should've used dissolves in Ektachrome when he was moving the lights around. Learning, learning, learning...

Dick (another great name) Mays

Well, I get that sometimes. All the daughters are pretty cute. Unfortunatly for me the gene pool is elsewhere. My wife and I are both remarried. She is a year older than me but that's it. Us TV guys, working in the dark and all, other than a little extra weight for us behind the scenes guys, seems to preserve us a touch better than some I suppose.

Thanks though. She enjoys the compliments, especially about her acting. It was a first time for her, and for her sister in DVC2.

Sean

I was named after Sean Connery. Parents first date was to a Bond movie. Was not as common of a name in the early '70s so they settled on that one. Been called "Seen" all my life. Still get it here in L.A.

Could be worse, I've been called Dick all my life...

Very true. You have the upper hand there.

Me too, but just by the neighbor kids and my older brother.
-Jon

ustillgotit
 

What can I say to the reigning King of the Hill from DVC2,...you still got it my my man....again, a very expertly composed piece. Your angles were very good and creative. Your pacing was very fluid, and it all seemed layered perfectly enough to suck me in. I especially loved small details like the end sequence when you walked in the door and approached the couch. The angle you used as you bent over the couch and noted the smell of the sandwich and then cut briefly to the sandwich. Very smooth. Creepy last frame to go with the eerie sound track. Nicely done.

-Jon

Hey Sean! Absolutely terrific!

(I'm sorry I'm late to the party on your film). I thoroughly enjoyed this whole concept of "without light...we cease to exist". Your heading into deep waters and I like that. This film was put together well with much thought and consideration.

What may be even more "spooky" than the end was your description of that unknown frame that Vanessa did not take! YeeeeHaaa!

Can you let me know if you chose that accent for a specific reason...am curious? Had you considered shooting a CU or ECU of your face in dismay/loss?

Your choice of music was superb, especially the end sequence, that to me almost had a Quentin Tarrantino feel.Your daughter Vanessa did a wonderful job with her acting and I'm sure you are quite proud. Hopefully she will want to do some more?

Great film Sean...Bravo!

Fantastic work. Everything about it was great. Bravo.

Bradley, and everyone else, thanks again. Anyone here ever see "Millennium". Loved that show. I have just finished watching all three seasons on DVD. Amazing. That's what I want to do. That level of darkness. I don't know why. Never tortured small animals or anything, I'm just looking at the world and I keep asking, what's going on here? I want to make people think. I have a long way to go yet. I hope I live long enough.

On the accent, you know I was thinking about that just this evening. I think I chose a rather Germainc/Austrian sort of accent only because I keep thinking I need a running dialog from a fatherly figure with conviction. I keep thinking Freud is the role model for that and I hear that sort of accent when I think of him. I needed an authority that could be believed and not questioned. A generally soft spoken but firm German accent to me means no-nonsense and listen to me, I am telling the scientific truth.

I'm pretty midwestern, most of my life in Ohio. I sound that way for the most part too.

Is it me or does everyone hate their own voice on recordings.

Thanks again everyone. I may not win but I'm doing what I like and it seems lots of you guys like it too. I'm geared toward this stuff so I'll keep in the genre for a while. Maybe something with clowns for Holloween? Overdone perhaps. Maybe psychic killer mice.

Night all.

Sean

Oh, I forgot, on the music. I actually get a lot of my ideas for story lines from listening to the music first. See my thread on where I find my music. Ronnie Raygun did a few songs that have a definate slack key guitar western twang to them. Reminded me a lot of the old gunfight scenes. I imediatly got an image of a scene that involves a dual at a stop sign. Can't go into detail but look for that one around spring. Need more time to polish the script and get folks lined up.

I work a lot like that. I keep a small recorder and my Dell Axim 30 (Palm Pilot like device) around for quick notes. I see scenes in my head plain as day when certain music is playing. I might be listening to the radio and hear something and think, man, that's the perfect music for a lone driver heading out of town into a great sunset with a shotgun on the passenger seat and sunglasses on.

That sort of thing.

Anyway, see you guys when the next great batch is released tomorrow morning.

Sean, again.

No, it's not just you. Most people do.

As you'll see (or hear) on Friday, I have good reasons to hate mine ;)

Hugo

Thanks Sean- Your description of seeing scenes in your head while listening to music fits me as well.

Yes- I really liked Millenium though it has been a while since I've seen it. Dark, twisted and very interesting. Seems to me I was watching both Millenium and X-Files then. I heard there is a new series coming out that is targeted towards fans of these series' but the name escapes me.

"Harsh Realm" - terrible show, for me at least. The promise of shows featuring High Tech always misses with me. That's why Outer Limits was so good. If there was some spooky eire device, it was a black box with a hole in it. Nobody knew how it worked, you never saw the technology, you just knew it was a bad thing and it worked very well at being bad.

There was a great episode I can't recall the details of now that dealt with people discovering a camera. I believe it was sent to them in a package that was labeled "Don't open until Christmas". Eventually, everyone opened the paper and peeked in the hole - and disappeared.

Simple, straight forward and left so much to imagine. See my previous thoughts on that.

Thanks,

Sean

EDIT ------

By the way, I just realized I keep spelling Ronni Raygun wrong. It's Ronni Raygun. There is another band with RonnIE. I am working with RonnI, from the NY/NJ area. If you like his music, I just found a GREAT Rockabilly band last night, Cadillac Angels.

Sean

Sean, as usual, we can count on a well blocked and shot movie from you! It was very compelling. I liked the fact that something remained behind when your daughter went off to Frame 37 world.

I agree with several others above, the last scene where you're looking through the pictures was very well done indeed. Also, the opening of the front door when your daughter leaves the house to go shoot was a great shot.

Whether you win this round or not, you clearly have an innate talent and eye for crafting great movies. Keep it up!

Thanks Jeff. I'm going to show all these reviews to the boss at the day job one day.

I remember watching an HBO series way back when the "Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" used to be on, (Blair Brown was a sort of a Babe to me - remember Altered States?) whose name escapes me now. The main lead, a younger 30 something male was named Ben I think. He was a publisher and he alwasy saw his life a various scenes from television. I can't remember the name of the show but it was pretty good. I'm a bit like that. I just see it the way it makes sense to me and do it.

Thanks again,

Sean

OK folks. After a week or so of building my own video/audio server, I find the bandwidth coming out of my house isn't going to support streaming. I can stream music pretty well but the demand is limited there. You are all welcome to stop in my editing suite and pull copies of the files if you like for later viewing. You will have to download them however as I have given up on Helix being able to server the videos effectivly on the puny uplink I have. I pay for the fastest downlink speed but I think that's the trade off.

You can see them here for a while. I may not keep them here forever but I did want to give it a try.

http://www.surgetechservices.com/smchenry/

Link to the videos page is near the top.

Enjoy for as long as it lasts.

Be sure to check out the older videos if you have an interest. I did some minor 3D work a few years back with 3D Studio. You might like the small demos. Used 3D Studio, Bryce and Cool3D amongst other stuff.

Sean.